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WILKES-BARRE TWP. - The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins picked a good night to have a good night on the power play.

With referee Nygel Pelletier whistling a penalty every other time he exhaled, the Penguins struck for three first-period power-play goals and held on to beat the Rochester Americans 5-4 Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

Chris Lee and Chris Conner each posted a goal and two assists in the first period. Dustin Jeffrey had three assists.

"Certain referees call things a little bit tighter," coach Todd Reirden said in the understatement of the day. "They have a dangerous power-play group, so we didn't necessarily want to get into a game where we were going chance for chance with them, but things worked out well for us early in the game."

There were five goals scored in the penalty-filled first period and not a single one came while the teams played 5-on-5. Pelletier called nine minors - six on Rochester and three on the Penguins - in the first 15 minutes of the game.

The Penguins scored on three of their six power-play chances and got another goal one second after a 4-on-3 advantage expired.

Tim Wallace stuffed in the rebound of a Conner shot at 3:09. Salak kicked a rebound out to Lee at the right faceoff dot for a goal at 4:18. Conner tapped in a Lee shot that hit the crossbar and dropped into the crease at 14:51.

Finally, Eric Tangradi, making his return to the lineup after missing six games with concussion symptoms, redirected in a Conner pass from the right half-wall at 16:36 to make the score 4-1.

"More often than not, we haven't been really consistent with our (power play) in terms of scoring on a regular basis," Reirden said. "Tonight it was good to see them rewarded. A lot of good power-play movement tonight."

A team won't get six power plays in a period if it's not possessing the puck and playing in the offensive zone, so it's fair to say the Penguins, to an extent, made their own breaks in the first period.

They had a couple of good reasons to come out strong, too.

For one thing, they were coming off a game against Springfield on Friday where they fell behind 4-1 early and rallied late to win 5-4 in overtime.

"Last game, we took the first two (periods) off," Conner said. "That was our main focus tonight, to get a good start and carry it through the game."

For another thing, they were playing in front of 8,227 fans, their largest home crowd of the season.

"A sell-out crowd, we wanted to get the energy going early and I think we did a pretty good job of that," Tangradi said.

Former Penguins forward Jeff Taffe did all he could in the second to send that crowd home unhappy.

He scored twice in the period, steering in the rebound of a Clay Wilson shot he swiped out of goalie John Curry's pads at 2:18 and tipping in a Wilson point shot at 18:40.

The Penguins held on in the third, thanks largely to a penalty kill that thwarted Rochester power plays after Wallace and Joe Vitale were called for minors 1:14 apart in the middle of the period.

"They've got some high-end skill there," Reirden said. "When we get away from our game plan at all, that's a team that can make you pay. In some cases tonight, they did."

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